Frivolous litigation by busybodies wastes time, says angry Supreme Court

Yet another Editorial, TOI, Jan 17th. PIL - Public Interest Litigation is yet another tool designed to empower general public and now serves more as a means to gain cheap publicity or for political gain. No doubt PIL ensures that justice in public interest prevails but what can be said about all and sundry filing PIL just to get a paragraph in the day's newspaper. We have come across PILs that do nothing but clog the judiciary which is already burdened. PIL should not be scraped because even if 5 out of 100 PIL are genuine, the purpose is served and someone gets justice. To reduce the clogging of judicial machinary, seperate PIL hearings should take place. India is facing an acute shortage of judges and lawyers who can administer justice. This scenario needs rethinking and refromation in near fututre. PIL cannot be made an excuse to delay justice and neither should be stopped from being the sole voice of 'JANTA' .